Readings

GIVING LIFE TO LIFE: A Spring Retreat

Join Joshin Brian Byrnes during this weekend retreat giving us the rare opportunity to drop into the deep questions related to time, life, death, rebirth, and no birth no death. On Saturday, a day trip is scheduled to the ancient Pueblo ruins and cave dwellings of Tsankawi.

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02-20-2014: Sesshin: Dogen’s Circle of the Way (Part 1)

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Series Description: Sesshin, meaning to gather the heart/mind, is an intensive meditation retreat done with others that deepens our relationship to our mind and to the world. In sesshin, the mind/body calms and settles, and the mind becomes clear and open. In this way, we experience our own true nature. This sesshin explores, with Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi and Brad Warner, Zen Master Dogen’s profound teachings on the unity of practice and awakening, and on the indivisibility of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Episode Description: In this first of three morning talks offered during sesshin, Sensei Kaz first discusses the idea of freedom. While we usually refer to freedom from external circumstances, Buddhist practice offers freedom from our limited conception of ourselves, allowing us to relax our boundaries and see our interpenetration with all things. Brad then takes his portion of the talk in a slightly different direction, musing on the meaning and importance of sitting meditation practice. For Brad, practice helps us to deepen our experience of each moment, giving us the opportunity and freedom to really live, and stop wasting, life.

Kazuaki Tanahashi born and trained in Japan and active in the United States since 1977, has had solo exhibitions of his calligraphic paintings internationally. He has taught East Asian calligraphy at eight international conferences of calligraphy and lettering arts. Also a peace and environmental worker for decades, he is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.

Brad Warner was born in Ohio in 1964. In 1983 he met Zen teacher Tim McCarthy and began his study of Zen while he was still the bass player of the hardcore punk band Zero Defex, whose big hit was the eighteen-second masterpiece “Drop the A-Bomb on Me!” In the 1980s he released five albums of psychedelic rock under the band name Dimentia 13 (that’s the way he spelled it), though Dimentia 13 was often a one-man band with Brad playing all the instruments. In 1993 he moved to Japan, where he landed a job with Tsuburaya Productions, the company founded by Eiji Tsuburaya, the man who created Godzilla. The following year Brad met Gudo Nishijima Roshi, who ordained him as a Zen monk and made him his dharma heir in 2000. Brad lived in Japan for eleven years. In 2003 he published his first book, Hardcore Zen, followed by Sit Down and Shut Up! in 2007 and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate in 2009. These days he travels around the world leading retreats, giving lectures, and looking for cool record stores. At last report he was living in Minneapolis with two rambunctious kitties.

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GIVING LIFE TO LIFE: A Spring Retreat from April 3 - 5, 2015.This weekend retreat gives us the rare opportunity to drop into the deep questions related to time, life, death, rebirth, and no birth no death.